A senior member of British Airways cabin crew is on trial accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague at his home, following separate allegations of rape made by two other women during overseas work trips.
Amardip Dhariwal, 54, known as Amo, is facing one charge of assault by penetration at Reading Crown Court. The incident is said to have occurred in May 2022 at his home in Bracknell, Berkshire, after he invited a fellow crew member for dinner and drinks.
The court heard that Dhariwal and the alleged victim consumed beer, wine and whisky while watching a film. The woman, who was engaged at the time and is now married, reportedly fell asleep during the film and later claimed she woke to find Dhariwal touching her inappropriately. She pretended to remain asleep before leaving his home when he went to bed.
The alleged victim told the court that she had once referred to the evening as a “date” in a message and had previously called Dhariwal her “work husband.” However, she insisted that the encounter was not consensual. Dhariwal told police that “anything that happened was consensual.”
At the time of the alleged incident, Dhariwal was employed as an in-flight lead on both long-haul and short-haul routes for British Airways. The current charge is the only one he is formally being tried for, but the court has heard testimony from two other women who accuse him of rape in separate incidents abroad.
The first alleged rape occurred during a work trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 2018. A female colleague claimed she was drunk and fell asleep in a hotel room, only to wake up and realise she had been assaulted.
The second woman alleges she was raped in Dhariwal’s hotel room in Singapore in March 2020. She told the court she woke up naked in his bed, with no recollection of how she got there. When she later confronted Dhariwal on Facebook, he allegedly replied, “You didn’t say no in bed, hun.”
While the Singapore police reportedly investigated the matter, they took no further action. British authorities received no assistance from Singaporean counterparts in the case, the court was told.
These two historical rape allegations are not included in the current indictment but have been presented as part of the prosecution's case to establish a pattern of alleged behaviour.
Dhariwal, from Southall, west London, denies the charge of assault by penetration. He maintains that all interactions with the alleged victims were consensual.
The trial is ongoing.
